“In capitalist societies, the goal is making profit, the expansion of money value, rather than the pleasure of using or consuming the commodities acquired through the exchange. In capitalist societies, value is continually being transformed from money into commodities and then back into a larger sum of money; value becomes capital by virtue of the fact that it is involved in the process of expanding, of creating extra value. However, there is only one commodity that can actually create extra value: human labor power.”

Perhaps we need to expand the concept of capitalism with an expanded view of value. We know that expanding money value in a vacuum is not working. Integrating consciousness and measures beyond profit ensures that value expands to include such things as making a difference in people’s lives and being respectful of ALL resources. When we view value from this view point, we are able to incorporate a concept of expansion that serves all of humanity, yet fundamentally rests on right use of individual power.

Capital + integrity = Profit with increased human power as an exponential

The price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness ~Sigmund Freud

It is hard to call capitalism successful, when two-thirds of the world’s people live in poverty. (Placard in Guadalajara Mexico)

The drive to political accumulation, to state holding, is the precapitalist analogue to the capitalist drive to accumulate capital. Robert Brenner The state is the distinctive collective misrepresentation of capitalist societies… It is a bid to elicit support for or tolerance of the insupportable and intolerable by presenting them as something other than themselves, namely legitimate, disinterested domination. The study of the state, seen thus, would begin with the cardinal activity involved in the presentation of she state: the legitimating of the illegitimate ~ Philip Abrams

Capitalism as an economic system is concerned with the production and sale of commodities in markets. Commodities are goods that are produced for sale rather than use by the people who made them. The roots of modern capitalism lie in the sixteenth century with the expansion of commerce and markets that eventually enveloped the entire world. Commercial or merchant capital is different from the barter, or traffic in goods, that occurred, and still takes place among precapitalist communities. In these societies the circulation of goods is aimed at the satisfaction of wants or needs. In capitalist societies, the goal is making profit, the expansion of money value, rather than the pleasure of using or consuming the commodities acquired through the exchange. In capitalist societies, value is continually being transformed from money into commodities and then back into a larger sum of money; value becomes capital by virtue of the fact that it is involved in the process of expanding, of creating extra value. However, there is only one commodity that can actually create extra value: human labor power.

“Archaeology The Historical Development of Civilizations”Author – Thomas C. Patterson

On one hand, you want to stay deeply in touch with your inner self – the part of you that has a philosophy about what you want to do and who you want to be. On the other, you want to run a successful business.

An intangible part of you – your spirit – is trying to work with a tangible part – your business sense.

Unfortunately, some advice that’s currently available about those two parts seem to be contradictory.

If you want a healthy spirit, the advice is as intangible as the spirit itself. You might be told to get in touch with your inner desires, or to spend time meditating, or to try new experiences.

There are no guidelines and no rulebooks. There is no way to measure whether you’re doing “well” except by paying attention to how you feel.

If you’re trying to create a thriving business, however, the advice is often nothing but measurements. You have files to complete and to turn into the appropriate addresses, checkboxes to mark off, linear paths to goals. You’ll often see business books that suggest 7 steps or 12 steps – it’s easy to tell whether or not you’ve achieved the goal laid out in each chapter.

Business success is about achieving something tangible – spiritual success is about achieving something intangible.

Running a business where the intangible and the tangible coexist is today’s challenge. The good news is there are more and more people talking about how to do this. It takes a community to make it happen and a vision to shift the consciousness of business.

Tell us about how you are doing it or how someone you know is.

We will keep you posted here about people who are walking the line with grace and ease.

What if your business could create happiness, love, and purpose with the same agility and certainty that it creates expanding profits, new customers, and new innovations? It’s a question that isn’t often asked in business, because intangible qualities like love aren’t easily measurable (and measures are the language of business). Most people don’t believe the tangible, everyday needs of business coexist with the intangible.

Oh, but they do.

The truth is just because the current language of business does not acknowledge intangibles, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Your business is an embodiment of who you are and what you believe – every time you expand your business, you also expand the knowledge and empowerment of yourself. When you are fundamentally coming from a place of love and purpose, you automatically are shifting your perspective of business.

When your business blends with your own personal philosophy, decisions become easier. You are able to access support not typically considered in traditional business models. Goals are set and achieved without struggle. Your strategies are driven not just by necessity but by passion. Your focus never wanders. You walk forward with absolute certainty that you are supporting the highest good. Not only does your business become a channel for success – it becomes a channel for your expanded inner self and an expanded model of what it means to be doing business in today’s world.

Fundamentally planning is about designing the steps between a current situation and a chosen future. Specific linear results are expected from each action taken. Have you ever noticed that specific, linear, expected results are rare? Consider that this is because as soon as an action is taken, external resistance or internal doubt may arise. Resistance or doubt will alter the action’s course and often deflect it from its original trajectory.

What to do?

– Clean up, to the best of your ability, any internal doubt that may stand in the way of your being aligned with your soul vision and your connection with divine source.

– Pay attention to feedback from divine source and then, to the best of your ability, plan your plan.

– Maintain action or change action based on correct perception of any external resistance.

A Few More Things……

– Be responsible for understanding the game you are playing.

– You are playing the game of business.

– The goal of the game of business is to have you be prosperous.

– Being prosperous, in the game of business, includes profit (even in a not-for-profit).

– In order to win (reach the goal), you must understand the rules.

– You can play the game with your own values, style, finesse, and integrity within the rules.

Here is a practical approach to developing a Social Media Strategy for your business:

#1 Understand the Water you are Putting your Toes Into Set up and start working the basics: Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn. Get comfortable, play with your style and core message. Understand and resist the embedded bias in the technologies you are utilizing. Don’t let the water overwhelm you.

#2 Create a Digital Rolodex of Connections When social media is done correctly, relationships will build naturally. Make sure you have an email gathering function working immediately. These are your future customers. Your opportunity to create intimacy begins immediately. When you are ready to offer something to your connections, your rolodex will be flush. Begin by inviting people you know, then follow people who interest you. Follow conversations, subscribe to blogs that interest you. Make a list of influencers relevant to your business and connect with them on FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

#3 Occasionally Educate about your Products and/or Services Yes, occasionally. You don’t want to come across like you are all about promoting yourself. Do start to establish yourself as the go-to in relation to your particular product and/or service by educating. Exhibit that you deserve respect –a necessary ingredient for crossing the boundary between being just a commodity to a valued relationship. Be willing to be educated and share what you learn and who you learned it from. Make sure that links to your website or blog have good information on them so people who want to know more can easily get info.

#4 Create a Game to Play Efficiently systematize how much time and energy you will put into your SM and then have fun with it! Be entertaining AND establish mystery –tell great stories, tap into peoples dreams. Do status updates and tweets based on the image you are holding. This is where you are starting to create leverage with your Social Media.

#5 Hone your ImageWhat is your platform? Now that you have had a little time to play, seriously review your image –what exactly do you want to project about you and your business? Make sure there is CONSISTENCY regarding your formats — begin to establish your brand. Review your basics: Do you need to add any portals? Delete some? Figure out distinctions between personal and biz for both Twitter and Facebook – do you need both? Does it make sense for you to start a group?

#6 Analyze, Adapt, and Improve Metrics You should be able to measure your success. Measures will tie into the goals and objectives of your strategy (more on this at Social Media Examiner).

#7 Focus on Community Radiate love in every Social Media action. Move your brand into the zone of inspiration. Create profound connections between others.

When you speak, plan, and act your business into being you are accessing your highest creative self and then yoking it into reality. Your heart or love center is where it comes together. It could be said that the vision you have of your business comes from a divine source, then you, as an instrument of source, create into the field of business. When you create into the field of business you are in a matrix where lots of people before you, now, and in the future will be creating and playing. Your strategy sets your boundaries of the field and helps you to blissfully play and not get caught within rules and consciousness that are not useful to you. The way to do this is to design your strategy (or plan) from a framework of making love to the world.

Making love to the world in this context is about making love from your heart center, while accessing sexual energy. Sexual (love) energy is the primal and creative energy of the universe. All things that are alive come from sexual energy. In animals and other life forms, sexual energy expresses itself as biological creativity. All life, all expression, all flowering is basically sex energy. In any situation where we feel attraction, arousal, awakening, alertness, passion, interest, inspiration, excitement, creativity or enthusiasm, in each of these situations, sexual energy is at work.

Whenever we feel these states of awareness, we put it in our attention to create our strategy. It is this sexual energy source, that we then yoke into experience with business transactions and keep alive in our awareness with strategy implementation. This is the act of creating a friendship (or union) with vibrant energy and making love to the world with it; thus elevating the stream of life and the matrix of business to new heights.

Within the matrix of business there are a few general rules to adhere to and play by –anything beyond these general rules have been created by others. Unless you design your own rules and measures of success, you will be doomed to play by the rules and measures of others. Bliss, carefreeness and playfulness are the essence of sexual energy in its most refined state –maintaining this essence is the number one rule when love is the bottom-line.

Take a moment and think about two people you are infatuated with –people you adore and who you also consider to be champions of your highest desires. These are people who wish you well AND don’t let you off the hook when you are being a ninny. These are NOT the people you call when you know what you want to hear. You may enjoy the people who tell you exactly what you want to hear, but you are not infatuated with them –I promise you. You may not even know your champions personally, but when you think about them, or read something about them, “truth” resonates.

My current champions are my Yoga Teacher, Guruatma Khalsa, and Yogi Bhajan. Guruatma, received direct instruction in the Science of Kundalini Yoga from Yogi Bhajan, the modern proponent of this ancient technology. This yoga gives me what I want by allowing me to feel like I am improving myself physically. The teachings behind the practice frequently shock me with brutal honesty. I can count on Guruatma to deliver the science in a way that supports what I want, while at the same time keeping me on track with what I “should” be doing. This makes her pricelessly infatuating.

Now, consider your two favorite customers (past, current, or future). Is there something you are offering or could offer that inspires infatuation? You might consider helping customers with their “should’s”? Several months ago, Made to Stick authors Dan & Chip Heath wrote an interesting article on the subject for Fast Company. Reading it might give you the inspiration for a product or service that links wants (a fix) and shoulds (fulfillment) for your customers: Sell Handcuffs – Why Customers Will Pay You to Restrain Them.

Several years ago I worked with an HR Director that I adored. I supported her in what she wanted –getting on Forbes Best-Companies-to-Work-for-List (2 years in a row). Her “want” was in the recognition –her company was absolutely a fabulous place to work. The “should” came from me –the company should have some metrics to demonstrate the bottom-line effectiveness of being a great place to work. At the time, an HR Director implementing metrics was not the norm, but we both knew it was a worthwhile endeavor and an edge. It was my job to support not only her need, but the metric design “should” prior to submitting the Best Company Application.

Might the future of business lie in encouraging “shoulds,” things customers know are good for them, rather than indulging “wants,” things craved in the moment? It’s a compelling idea.